Behind the Docuseries: Uprising

Directed by Academy Award winner Steve McQueen and James Rogan, Uprising is a new three-part documentary series examining three events from 1981 - in January, the New Cross Fire which killed 13 Black teenagers; in March, Black People’s Day of Action, which saw more than 20,000 people join the first organised mass protest by Black British people; and the Brixton riots in April.

In this panel discussion the female executive team behind the series, Rogan MD Soleta Rogan, lead Executive Producer Nancy Bornat and senior series producer Helen Bart, will be in conversation with host Akua Gyamfi, Founder and Managing Director of The British Blacklist, about the development process, sharing an insight to the making of the documentary which brings together testimonials from those who were there to explore race relations and reflect on the legacy of these historic events.

Uprising is coming to BBC One on 20 July-22nd July and will be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer.

Soleta Rogan is the MD of Rogan Productions. She has recently been appointed to the Festival Board of Edinburgh TV Festival and is also a member of the Management Team of peer-to-peer network group, We Are Doc Women.

Soleta began her career working for nearly 10 years in retail sales and marketing. She co-founded the indie Rogan Productions in 2013, with a vision of delivering high-end films for broadcast and not-for- broadcast content. In addition to her operational responsibilities, Soleta performs Executive Producer and Production Executive roles across the production slate. Previous credits include The Confession for BBC Storyville/BFI, Waiting for Invasion for Al Jazeera and The Craftsmen’s Dinner series, with Michel Roux Jr. for The Balvenie.

Nancy Bornat is a BAFTA winning documentary producer. She was an executive producer of the critically acclaimed BBC series The Yorkshire Ripper Files (2019) and The Shipman Files (2020). She was the factual producer of the BBC drama The Windermere Children and executive produced the accompanying documentary The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words.

As well as these she was series producer of four series of the BBC's popular series Back in Time, including Back in Time for Brixton. Over 20 years, she has worked in history and arts programmes as well as documentaries, exploring a wide variety of subjects and stories.

Helen Bart is a senior television producer. A journalist for 25 years, with 17 years at the BBC, Helen worked across Newsnight, BBC World Service, BBC London and The Politics Show, specialising in news, politics, global and community affairs. For the past fourteen months she has been the Senior Producer across three separate documentaries; Black Power: A British Story Of Resistance, Subnormal: A British Scandal and Uprising which portray and highlight forgotten periods in modern, British social history relating to the UK’s black communities. The documentaries are the factual counterparts to Sir Steve McQueen’s Small Axe television series on which she was the Associate Producer and consultant in charge of the research and development for nearly seven years. Small Axe recently led the BAFTA Television Award nominations and scooped two Golden Globe nominations.

Before Small Axe, Helen was the Legal Lead Producer on the ground-breaking BBC documentary, Stephen: The Murder That Changed A Nation, about the killing of Stephen Lawrence. The documentary went on to win several prestigious awards.

Host, Akua Gyamfi has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry, with a career spanning fashion, film, television, theatre, print, and online media. In 2012 Akua founded The British Blacklist a platform that celebrates the talents of British Black creatives across Screen, Stage, Literature, and Sound. She also produces podcasts Your Aunties Could Never (popular culture, and TBB Talks (interviews with Black creatives from around the globe). Alongside writer/producer Leon Mayne, Akua is the co-creator/co-exec producer and host of the industry round table series The Circle. In 2019 Akua joined forces with Soul Film, The New Black Film Collective, and We Are Parable to launch the S.O.U.L. Film Festival, an annual event that showcases the best of Black filmmakers and content creators from the UK and the wider Diaspora.

Event Schedule:

17:55: Please join the webinar waiting room

18:00: Host chairs conversation

18:45: Attendee Q&A opens

19:00: Finish

How will the online event work?

This event will be live streamed via Zoom.us. Viewing details will be sent via your confirmation.

Attending participants will not be visible to others and will be muted throughout the session. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask their questions to the panel by using the Q&A feature.

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